


hope i can lay my hat there, and call it my home

by thethirdphiladelphiavireo



Series: see the day [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Kissing, Neck Kissing, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:35:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26555194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thethirdphiladelphiavireo/pseuds/thethirdphiladelphiavireo
Summary: “Fuck, Catra,” Adora gasps.Catra presses a hand over her mouth, muffling her noises. “Quiet, princess,” she purrs, then drags her rough tongue up the column of Adora’s neck, humming at the pleasant tang of salt on her skin. “We wouldn’t want anyone waking up and coming to see what’s going on, would we?” She shifts her weight, pinning Adora more firmly into the training mat below.Adora shakes her head, squirming beneath her.“That’s what I thought.”...Catra comes back from a long mission and is eager to reunite with her wife.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Series: see the day [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931233
Comments: 8
Kudos: 393





	hope i can lay my hat there, and call it my home

**Author's Note:**

> this is just a little idea i got while writing another story of mine, "i never thought i'd see the day." technically, this is a prequel to that story.

Catra yawns and slumps over, resting her head on top of Darla’s humming control board.

“Get off of that!”

Groaning, Catra flicks her tail dismissively in Glimmer’s general direction. “Sh. Sleeping.”

“At least have the decency to get away from the very delicate thousand-year-old technology if you want to nap,” Glimmer reprimands her. Catra’s ears twitch as footsteps cross the hull of the ship, Glimmer walking over to stand over her. “Come on. Get up. We’ll be landing soon.”

“How soon?”

“Ten minutes, maybe?”

At that, Catra finally perks up. They’ve been in space for a week now, making the long trek back from a far-flung planet that had formerly been under Horde control. All told, between traveling and their stay, it’s been a nearly month long trip.

The fact that Bow and Adora stayed behind on Etheria probably hasn’t helped things either. Glimmer and Catra are friends, good friends, but sometimes they struggle when not countered by the others’ less volatile characters. It can be a bit much to deal with at times.

Frankly, Catra is exhausted. All she wants is to get off the ship, get into the castle, and flop down and sleep in her own, soft, warm Bright Moon bed for a couple of days.

Unfortunately, when the ship does finally land, and she and Glimmer go their separate ways, she doesn’t immediately get to fall asleep. It’s late at night, but when Catra carefully opens the door to her room and slips inside, she finds her bed empty, missing the most important component of her fantasy—Adora.

Catra frowns, and wonders where she could be.

Maybe Adora isn’t in Bright Moon tonight. After all, she and Glimmer finished their business on that foreign planet ahead of schedule; maybe Adora hadn’t been expecting her back and had gone off to one of the other kingdoms for some She-ra business. She is, after all, in high demand—even five years after the end of the war. 

Catra sighs and stretches, cracking her back. Oh well. It can’t be helped. Still, she’s not sure if she’ll be able to get much rest tonight. She’s always had trouble sleeping without Adora there.

She ends up deciding to go to the kitchens for a late-night snack instead of heading straight for bed. She’s found, over the years, that she develops an instinctual, habitual unease whenever she doesn’t know where Adora is. The initial surprise of finding the empty room has woken her up, driving away her drowsiness. There’s no use in lying down just to toss and turn for ages. 

As she winds through the palace’s vast halls, everything is silent. It’s a little eerie. (Maybe it’s a little too close to Prime’s ship for comfort.) Over the years, the guards have been ordered to patrol less and less frequently given that the Horde’s been defeated—no comparable threat has ever risen up, thankfully, and Etheria as a whole seems to be relishing in its newfound peace. Despite all that, as the queen’s advisor, Catra isn’t wild about it. She still sees threats around every corner, dark and light, and she’d appreciate more security rather than less. Glimmer, however, disagrees, and insists she can take care of herself every time the conversation comes up. Catra still hasn’t let the subject drop completely.

Suddenly, in the dead quiet of the night, Catra hears a dull, muffled _thump_. It’s coming from somewhere up ahead. Catra keeps walking, her ears pricked forward, listening with practiced caution.

Another _thump_ —louder this time, though that may be because Catra’s getting closer.

Finally, Catra identifies and reaches the source of the sounds—the training room. She lets out a sigh of relief, images of would-be assassins fading from her mind, then furrows her brow in confusion. Who would be in there this late?

Oh. Wait a second.

Catra cracks open the door and peeks inside. Sure enough, she can make out Adora at the far end of the room, beating the hell out of a training bag.

Tensions seeps out of her body at the sight of her wife. She enters the room, the door clicking shut behind her. Adora doesn’t seem to notice. Catra smiles and makes a plan in her head.

She creeps across the brightly lit tile floor, her hands outstretched at her sides. Meanwhile, Adora is in her own world, punching away without a care—Catra will have to time her assault perfectly, or else risk getting a mean right-hook to the jaw.

Once she’s within leaping distance, Catra pounces. She sails through the air and collides with Adora’s middle, bowling her over into the mat below. Adora lets out a startled cry. A brief struggle ensues, but Catra’s victory is more or less decisive, thanks to the element of surprise.

Catra leans down, her lips brushing the shell of her ear: “Hey Adora.”

“Catra.” Adora stops wiggling and goes still. “You’re back early.”

“And you’re up late,” Catra responds. “What are you doing out here?”

“Couldn’t sleep.”

It’s not unusual that either of them has trouble sleeping—they both have plenty of things to have nightmares about, after all. Catra’s heart clenches at the thought of Adora waking in the middle of night, shivering alone in their bed at the memory of whatever she’d been dreaming about. She assumes that Adora must be working through some of frustration related to that, but she doesn’t want to pry. Instead, she just sits back, shifting some of her weight off Adora. “Miss me that much, princess?”

It’s just a joke, meant to steer them away from the sometimes-sensitive topic of their dreams, but Adora suddenly flushes, the tips of her ears turning scarlet.

Oh.

Catra raises an eyebrow. “Wait, seriously?”

“You don’t like sleeping without me either,” Adora mumbles into the training mat.

Catra’s heart seizes with a burst of affection. She smiles. “Wow. Didn’t realize you were so whipped.”

“Who are you calling whipped?” With those words, Adora suddenly surges upwards, knocking Catra off her back. She twists and catches Catra’s wrists in her hands, expertly pinning her.

Dammit. Catra should’ve known better than to ease up on her. She struggles fruitlessly in Adora’s grip while Adora grins triumphantly.

Whatever. Adora might be stronger, but Catra knows just how to get out of this.

She leans up and firmly presses her lips against Adora’s, not giving Adora any time to see it coming. Adora’s grasp on her wrists stays firm, but she almost immediately melts into the kiss with a soft hum against Catra’s lips.

It’s been so long since Catra’s seen Adora—it’s been so long she’s been missing her—that Catra almost abandons her plan entirely in favor of staying in this moment for a little while longer. But Catra is nothing if not competitive. She can’t let it go.

While Adora’s distracted, Catra quickly snakes her tail under her shirt, rubbing the bristly fur haphazardly over her stomach. Adora tenses and tightens her grip on Catra at first, shaking with silent giggles, but eventually gives into her onslaught and rolls off her, laughing uncontrollably.

Catra stands up, smug. “The mighty She-ra, defeated by tickles. What would all your adoring fans say if they could see you now?”

Adora blinks up at her, gasping for air. “They’d say you’re a dirty cheater.”

“Oh, really?” Catra purrs. She leans over Adora. “Their loss, I guess.” With that, she tilts up Adora’s chin and kisses her again, soft and slow, without the pretense of the game. Adora smiles against her lips; one of her hands lands on the back of Catra’s neck, threading itself in her hair.

“Missed you,” she says when Catra breaks the kiss to straddle her properly.

“Missed you too.” Catra ghosts her lips across Adora’s jaw. She feels giddy and warm—it reminds her of the early days of their relationship, and the butterflies that accompanied every gesture of affection they exchanged.

“Someone’s eager,” Adora says, soft and breathy, when Catra finishes by taking Adora’s earlobe in her mouth with a gentle suck. She lets out a contented sigh and moves one of her hands to Catra’s back, tracing over her shoulder blades delicately.

Catra rolls her eyes playfully. She wants eager, huh? “Lie down all the way.”

Adora does what she asks, leaning back until she’s flat against the training mat. Catra straightens up, taking a pause to admire her. She looks good enough to eat in her training clothes, flushed and disheveled and slightly sweaty, so Catra decides to get a taste, attaching her mouth the sharp edge of Adora’s jaw. She tries her best to be gentle and not leave a mark (even though she knows from experience that Adora really, _really_ wouldn’t mind if she did.)

Adora hums and bares her neck in response, her eyes half-closed. Catra takes the hint and moves a little lower, leaving a slow trail of soft kisses across her skin.

Adora seemingly gets impatient with her pace. “Catra,” she whines. “More.”

“More?” Catra asks, her tail curling with anticipation. She always loves when Adora gets like this, and she enjoys teasing her a little. “Who’s eager now?”  
Adora huffs and Catra chuckles. She could go prodding Adora for a little longer, but, truthfully, she’s getting a little impatient herself.

“All right, all right,” she says, “More,” then nips sharply at the bottom of her jaw.

“Fuck, Catra,” Adora gasps. 

Catra presses a hand over her mouth, muffling her noises. “Quiet, princess,” she purrs, then drags her rough tongue up the column of Adora’s neck, humming at the pleasant tang of salt on her skin. “We wouldn’t want anyone waking up and coming to see what’s going on, would we?” She shifts her weight, pinning Adora more firmly into the training mat below. 

Adora shakes her head, squirming beneath her.

“That’s what I thought.”

Catra continues on like that for a while, alternating between rough attack and soft exploration of Adora’s neck. She aches to touch Adora everywhere, to worship every inch of her boy and to make up for their month-long separation. She has her hand under the hem of Adora’s shirt, just beginning to ruck it up, when there’s a sudden flurry of sound outside the door—loud footsteps, shouts, and clanging armor. Shit—the guards. Finally doing their jobs, it would seem.

Catra shoots to her feet and Adora follows suit. It’s not a moment too soon—just a heartbeat later, a guard opens the door, a confused look on her face.

“Oh! Princess, Advisor Catra,” she greets them. “I wondered why the lights were on in here. Everything alright?”

Adora nods, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly a few times. “Yep! Everything’s fine.”

“Good to hear! What are you two doing up do late?” The guard asks conversationally.

Adora sends a vaguely panicked look in Catra’s direction.

Catra stares back at her impassively, watching her squirm.

After a few moments of floundering, Adora finally pulls herself together just enough to respond verbally to the guard’s question. “Oh, just, uh, you know… Sparring! Getting in a late-night spar, burning off some energy.” She smiles too widely.

The guard looks between the two of them. “I see.” Her eyes twinkle beneath her helmet. “I see. Well, enjoy your sparring. Have a good night.” With that, she exits the room, shutting the door firmly behind her.

Catra shakes her head. “Smooth, Adora.”

Adora pouts. “Hey, it wasn’t that bad! Besides, you know I hate being put on the spot like that.”

Catra nods. “I sure do.” She steps forward and wraps her arms around Adora, nuzzling under her neck, and yawns. “I’m tired,” she states. “Come back to bed with me?”

Adora sighs, relaxing in Catra’s embrace, and drops a kiss on her shoulder. One of her hands snakes between their bodies, coming to grasp lightly at the front of Catra’s jacket—Catra realizes that Adora’s fingers are tracing the golden pin that adorns her front, her token of their marriage. “Let’s go,” Adora finally says. “I’m sure we could both use the sleep.”


End file.
